A True Psychic Tale
by Sei-sama
Summary: She wants to help save her dad, but she has been left behind at the HQ. Oh well, time to sneak out!
1. What a Misleading Title

Hello. This is probably one of my most recent obsessions: The Most Excellent Game Psychonauts. If you haven't played it yet, you should.

Anyways, I thought up of a sequel-ish thing after that CLIFF-HANGER ENDINGGGGGG. Unfortunately, the first chapter isn't all that interesting. You could probably skip it, since you wouldn't miss much. There's a whole bunch of awkward phrasings and unneeded content. If anybody would like to beta this, then please do.

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**And We Fall, Fall, Fall, Down to the Ground**

"I'm not just gonna stand by when my dad's in danger."

This was a little while after all four Psychonauts plus Lili Zanotto, one of the best at Whispering Rock Camp and daughter of the recently kidnapped Truman Zanotto, left said camp in their really cool super-jet.

"Don't be stubborn," Sasha retorted in that deep and infuriatingly calm voice. "Vera may not be physically strong, nor does she have any psychic powers that we know of, but she is known for cunning strategies and Xanatos Gambits. She has already managed to steal away your father. It might even be her plan to capture you as well."

"Then what was the point in bringing me along in the first place?!" Lili fumed as the jet roared on through the sky. The inside of the jet was spacious and because they were going really fast, Milla urged everybody to sit down and buckle their seatbelts. Lili found it very awkward to be angry at Sasha when he was sitting in front of her instead of standing near (and actually facing) her.

"It's safer for you to stay at HQ than at camp. We're going there briefly to figure out exactly what happened and then we're going to leave to try to save your father."

"Please darling," Milla said, turning around in her seat. "Just cooperate. I know you want to help, but…"

"But what? You think I'm not capable? I know I'm not a Psychonaut _yet_, but I can still fight! You trust Raz, don't you? Can't you trust me?" Raz, who had been trying to keep out of the argument by remaining silent the whole time, turned at the mention of his name.

"Lili, please," Sasha said, and he turned around in his seat too to face the girl, "You must understand. Your father has been kidnapped, which is obviously not an easy feat. This will be very dangerous and we will have to fight strong – very strong - beings. Do you think your father would want you to immediately chase after him? It's our responsibility now to save him, of course, but also to protect you. I cannot, in good mind, just let you tag along with us."

"He makes several good points, Lili," said Raz. "If I were your dad right now, I wouldn't want you to risk your life trying to save me, 'specially if the person who kidnapped me in the first place wants you to do that to capture you as well, effectively using me as bait." Sasha made a little nod at the long-winded, 'heard-it-a-million-times' phrase as if saying, 'You see?'

"Couldn't you be on my side?" the girl snapped irately.

"Don't worry, Lili, we'll have your dad saved in a snap. Maybe this lady is super smart, but she can't possibly handle us four, right? We've got a really great team: our own genius, the Mental Minx, Morry…who…knows stuff about military and maybe has his own strategies…and me, anti-kidnapping specialist."

Lili glared at all three of them as she searched for any kind of retort. Upon finding none, she threw herself to the back of her seat and sank down in angry defeat. "Fine, you win." Both Milla and Sasha broke into relieved grins before turning around again. "But," she added, "what about Mr. Cruller back at camp? Since, you know, it's dangerous and all…"

"Well," Sasha coughed, "I'm sure Ford can take good care of himself." Raz raised an eyebrow at this one.

"When we left him, he was chasing us out of his kitchen."

"Cooks are generally quite possessive of their kitchens."

"He was nowhere near the lodge."

"I wouldn't worry. Agent Cruller will make sure all of the kids are picked up, and then he will make his way back to his sanctuary. He always does."

"You know, I've always wondered why he needs that underground transport system thing…"

"We're HEEEEERE!" Coach Oleander interrupted loudly from his seat near the front, conveniently derailing Raz's train of thought. The jet promptly started slowing down and descended, judging by the sudden lack of light, below ground. All the passengers felt the pressure pushing them into the seat lessen and started to get up and stretch.

"Now Razputin," the German agent said as he floated down from the jet, "the Grand Head has been kidnapped, so HQ may be understandably in frantic chaos…don't trust your first impressions because many people here are very powerful psychics; well, they _are_ Psychonauts, but right now, they may seem rather…" as Raz exited the jet, Sasha's voice seemed to fade away. He floated slowly down, staring at HQ.

None of the comics he had obsessed over had done it justice.

It was an amazing work of architectural design. Whatever rock it had been made out of, it was white, and it looked like they just took a huge, HUGE block of whatever rock it was and just carved it all out. It seemed to shine. There were no towers or turrets or anything – after all, it was the Psychonauts HQ, not some fairy-tale castle – but there were pillars and arches with complicated motifs carved in (the official Psychonauts emblem was the biggest and on top of the door, of course) and glass tubes that wound all over the place, leading to different parts of the building. A glass dome was also at the top. It looked like a cafeteria.

The building was also rather misshapen, as if it had started out like a regular rectangular building, but different people started adding onto it, so there were rooms sticking out everywhere, looking like they were defying gravity. The entrance had a carved message saying 'Querido Mente Entrar Aqui'. It had a general awesome air about it.

It was also, Raz noticed as he tried to read the message, upside-down.

"…Why is…" he started, before being interrupted by Oleander.

"The tubes? Well, there used to be elevators, but they constantly caught on fire. For some odd reason. They were sort of useless anyways. Also, the tubes looked cool. The building looked really boring before anyways…"

"Well, that answers one of my question but I was about to ask – "

"The inscription?" this time it was Sasha. "I believe it's supposed to be Spanish. The grammar is obviously incorrect, though. None of us know any Spanish, actually. We used an online translation site, though those are never very reliable. We tried Latin, but then nobody could figure out the right verb endings."

"Okay, but – "

"What does it mean?" said Milla. "Well, darling, we couldn't think of a very cool phrase so they higher ups just thought of the phrase 'Great Minds Enter Here' and told us to translate it into a language that made it sound nice. Unfortunately, the site didn't provide the word for 'Great' so we substituted it with 'Big.' And then I don't know if we made 'Minds' plural…"

"…'Big Mind Enter Here?'" Raz said incredulously. "Wait, that wasn't my question though. Why is it upside-down?!"

"Because," started Lili as she passed the young Psychonaut, rolling her eyes. "It was originally built above ground, but then people started attacking it so we decided to move it below ground using telekinesis and we simply…" here, she made a vague hand movement, "…flipped it over."

"She's right, sweetie. You wouldn't believe how many people that took…and we also had to dig this whole cavern. You wouldn't believe how much dirt and rocks piled up! We tried to leave them around and pass them off as hills, but then there were too many reports of children sinking through them so we had to fling it into space. And then we found out we forgot to move everything out beforehand! Desks and papers were everywhere, chairs were broken…that took a long time to sort out."

"Okay, that does explain everything, but couldn't it be simpler to just keep it right side-up, lower it into the cavern, and then just have a layer of dirt on top of it?"

"Mmm, not really…" The group reached the double doors, which were silver, huge, and upside-down. Sasha and Milla opened them with telekinesis, and walked inside, ignoring the various people in the lobby running around throwing papers everywhere, breaking down into tears and incomprehensive babbling, and generally panicking. Raz was the only one who seemed to notice the whole chaotic scene and was even ran into a few times by some frantic guy. The others just walked through the room calmly, as if this was the norm, towards a desk. Behind the desk was a woman who seemed to be the only one remaining sane. She was filing her nails.

"Hey," she said as the group stopped in front of her. She looked up briefly to examine their faces, but quickly went back to her nails. "You can leave Miss Zanotto up with Agent Baker. He's probably waiting for you at Mr. Zanotto's office. You can also look around there if you like. Oh, and who's the new kid?" She didn't sound interested at all who Raz was. She seemed to have just asked for the hell of it.

"Our new Psychonaut," Sasha answered with a small, proud grin.

This answer actually got the woman to look up again at Raz. She scrutinized him for a few seconds. "Awfully young, Agent Nein."

"Maybe so, but his mental prowess is great."

A shrug. "Whatever." The woman continued filing her nails, but with such an air of concentration that the group knew the conversation was over.

"Those guys back there…" the red-brown haired Psychonaut started as they walked down the hall. "I know Lili's dad just got kidnapped, but…aren't they overreacting?"

"They work here 24/7. They're the ones who receive information about conspiracies and so on that we're supposed to stop. A lot of things come in. After a while, some of them get really stressed. I believe once, when I checked up on someone in that department, I asked if he was fine. He said yes. Then something flashed on the screen and he grabbed his hair and screamed something along the lines of 'Oh god! What?! What the hell is it now?!' and proceeded to bang his head on the keyboard. I'm guessing that everybody moved them down to the lobby so none of the computers could be damaged."

"That's…horrible!"

"We use help line operators and telemarketers for that job."

"Oh…that's okay, I guess." They turned a corner and started floating up one of the numerous tubes that wound around the building. As Raz floated upwards, he caught glimpses of the floors he passed. The people he happened to see on the other floors seemed sane, and actually very busy trying to figure things out.

A young, average-looking man greeted them when they emerged from the tube on the fifteenth floor. "Evenin'," he smiled cheerfully as he followed them towards the office. "Glad you're here to help us out. I'll watch over Miss Zanotto for ya while you're away." He grinned towards Lili, who only scowled in return. "Ah…yes. Anyways, I've assessed the scene myself…di'nt find much, though I think you'll find it interestin' to know that there wasn't a sign of any struggle. Nobody heard or saw anythin'."

"So it was most likely the work of a psychic?" Sasha asked stoically. Agent Baker gave a relaxed grin back.

"You di'nt have to ask that. The answer's obvious, i'nit? The windows weren't broken in, no sign of a fight, no trace left behind, and the perp couldn't go down the tubes without being caught. He must've come in through the window, nabbed the chief, and went out the same way using levitation, maybe invisibility in case anybody thought to look outside. In fact, he probably used invisibility to get in too, seeing as the chief di'nt put up a fight at all, and knocked 'im out before he could do anything." Sasha nodded before opening the great mahogany doors to the office and peered inside. The desk had numerous papers on it, most of them dangerously piled up on the IN box, none of them in the OUT. The massive bookshelves lining the walls had books shoved in messily. Random bits of paper were easily seen in the books, probably being used as bookmarks. The chair was turned around, away from the desk, facing the large window.

"I can see how you came to that conclusion," Agent Nein said, walking in. "But the windows cannot be opened from the outside." He opened the window and bent over to look down, as if judging the distance to the ground. "The glass obviously hadn't been shattered, and no psychic can walk through walls. That's for superheroes. I think I can safely assume that whoever went and kidnapped Mr. Zanotto went through the door." He shut the window again as what the deduction implied clicked through everybody else's minds.

"Wait," said Raz slowly. "This could've been an inside job? There might be a spy here?"

"Make sure not to tell anyone," was the German's only reply. "The telemarketers are anxious enough as it is, and it will only harbor distrust throughout the building."

"So," Oleander said, rubbing his chin, "it's most likely one of the newbies, then?"

"Actually, that fact rules out all of them. It could only be a veteran, someone who has been here a long time, maybe more than two years. New recruits don't go to Mr. Zanotto's room, unless they were already very close to Mr. Zanotto and he calls them up here frequently, or maybe if they're his daughter's boyfriend." This gained wry smiles and a very embarrassed Raz. (Lili kept scowling.) "In any case, it's only after five years that one is entrusted with actually going into this office to send a report or even have a casual conversation with him. We do have enemies, after all, and there have been previous assassination attempts."

The silence was broken by a rather nervous chuckle from Agent Baker. "That's Sasha for ya. Always to the point."

"In war, you must be prepared for betrayal…" Oleander murmured, although it seemed that he hadn't been prepared at all. Milla remained silent, disturbed by the thought of someone she knew, maybe even a friend, could have been a traitor all along.

"Now now, let's not dwell on this revelation," said Sasha. "The important thing is that we know, and that someone finds out who it is. Everybody should be here…Agent Baker, can you figure out who the spy is and make sure nobody leaves?"

"…Sure, y'can count on me…" he replied with a wan grin. Sasha nodded.

"Good. Has Vera sent any transmissions or…anything?"

"She called us to point out that she got the chief and she gloated a bit." Baker's mouth was now set in a grim line, showing that he didn't like to be taunted. "We traced the signal, though, and got the coordinates…" here, he hesitated. "…It was too easy. Don'cha think – "

"Yes, most likely."

"B-but…so you're…"

Sasha looked at him sternly. "We can't just leave Truman there."

"Of course not," Baker replied hastily. "I wasn't suggestin' that at all. It's just…you're just gonna walk right into 'er trap!"

"I'm sure that's what Vera wants. However, I plan on surprising her."

Lili stood at the entrance beside Baker and watched the jet fly away again. She sighed as she was led back inside. Goddammit! She wanted to go too! She wanted to save her father! She wanted to go on an exciting adventure and prove to her father that she was a strong psychic! She didn't want to end up sitting in one place, helpless, unable to move…

"I've suddenly got a lot of work to do," Agent Baker said, rousing Lili from her thoughts.

"So you want me to look after her instead." Lili stared up at the receptionist and made a face. Staying in the lobby with that particular woman wasn't a very attractive idea, especially with paranoid telemarketers running around the room as well. However, she stayed silent.

"Yeah. Please, Gladys? If I'm busy, she might run off…and Sasha told me to make sure she doesn't." It was starting to annoy her how they were talking as if she wasn't there. "I mean, you're not doin' anythin' much right now, are ya?"

"I'm a _secretary_, Baker. Of _course_ I don't do anything."

"Great! So…you'll look after 'er for me?" Baker only got a shrug. He assumed that it was a 'yes.' "Great! So Lili, jus' stay 'ere with Gladys while I look up…the stuff." The man swiftly disappeared around the corner.

Lili watched him as he vanished in the crowd of panicking helpline operators before turning back to Gladys. The lady was filing away lazily at her nails.

Well…as long as she wasn't paying attention…

"Hold it right there, missy." Right before Lili was about to push her way into the crowd of screaming people, she was held up in the air by a telekinetic hand. "Just 'cause I'm only the secretary, doesn't mean I'm not psychic. Now where do you think you're going?"

"Bathroom," Lili replied with a scowl as she was forced to turn around and face Gladys again.

Gladys chewed some gum very loudly. "Uh-huh. Bathroom's over thataway." She lazily pointed with the nail file to the hallway nearby and let Lili go. The girl was left without a choice but to go there. "And don't think about escaping, 'cause I'll be watching."

Lili turned the corner and stood there for a few seconds before peering around again.

"I can see you over there," said Gladys, and Lili stopped peering.

Okay, so she had to think. Well, obviously, she could turn invisible and sneak past Gladys, but what about afterwards? She had no idea where Vera (or whatever) was, nor did she have the slightest clue of how to get there.

Well, there were bound to be extra jets around here. Maybe she could take one of those…only, she didn't know how to drive a jet, and she didn't have the keys to one anyways, so that meant she had to steal some keys and get some driving lessons.

It was her only option, ludicrous as it was. She'd have to skip the driving lessons, though.

What about those coordinates? Obviously, they would now be stored in the computers since it was such important information, but her father had thoughtfully neglected to tell her any passwords and Lili didn't have any hacking skills whatsoever. She didn't know anybody who'd let her peek at the coordinates either.

But, she realized, there was one guy who possibly knew them and would be willing to give them to her too.

First thing, though, was to get a key, and then escape. Lili walked casually back to Gladys. The secretary found that her nails were as filed as they could get without bringing extreme pain to her, and so settled for just chewing her gum very loudly.

It was very aggravating, but Lili managed to ignore it. "Hey, I just remembered that I left something up at my dad's office. I'm gonna go get it. Just thought you should know." There was no sign of acknowledgement. The chewing just continued. Lili took this as a 'yes, you can go upstairs to your dad's office, even though it's a crime scene and you really shouldn't touch anything and you shouldn't have left anything there in the first place, but go ahead, be my guest.'

So Lili quickly floated back up to her dad's office and ran to his large, paper-covered desk, opening drawers quickly and psi-blasting the ones that were locked. She finally found them on a peg on a wall, under a coat, and tried to hide it in her skirt before going back down.

"What did'ja forget?" asked Gladys when she came down again.

"What? Oh, my cellphone."

Lili then simply stood by the gum-popping, nail-file-wielding secretary. It was boring. So boring that, when she thought she had waited long enough, she didn't even have to act: "This is so _boring_! I bet whatever that Baker guy is doing is much better than this! Can I just go stand with him instead?"

"Hm? Oh, sure. His office is on the fourth floor." Lili didn't listen.

As soon as she turned the corner again, she turned invisible by concentrating on warping the air around her (or something like that. She never found out how invisibility worked). After that, Lili only had to maneuver quickly through the throng of screaming people and open the door in a way that didn't attract attention.

She floated gently to the ground of the large cavern. Well, that was easy. Now where did her dad leave his own personal jet again?

Lili took out the cylindrical key again, which was smooth and silver and had a little door glued on top, and stared at a button connected to the keychain. It was the call button, for getting the specific jet to move to where the button-pusher was. She glanced at the upside-down building. Would people notice if she called the jet right here? She moved away from the headquarters just to be sure, and then pressed the button. Truman Zanotto's personal jet glided smoothly in front of her.

Lili quickly glanced towards the headquarters again – there were no angry shouts commanding her to stop, nor was there an angry Agent Baker storming out the doors – before levitating into the jet and plopping herself in the pilot's seat.

The girl popped the cylindrical key into the matching hole and then leaned back and closed her eyes to concentrate. She expanded her mental reach and pushed it through the key into the workings of the jet…

There was a lot of metal junk that meant absolutely nothing to her, and although Lili felt as if she was being surrounded on all sides by machinery, she also knew that she was really just sitting in a chair. She wasn't even using an astral projection – it was just kinda like using telekinesis to move some stuff in the jet to make the jet move.

She hesitantly moved a thingy and felt the jet rise slowly, and silently upwards. Okay, so that controlled the jet. Lili moved the thingy so the jet moved towards the exit hole, hopefully. Uncertain of where exactly she was going, the young girl opened an eye to check the surroundings. The mental link was broken, and the jet started to fall. With a yelp, Lili reformed the link and jiggled the thingy some more so that the jet would stop falling, and this time she landed the jet softly before checking where the exit was. The jet then jerkily flew towards the general exit area and flew up through the hole. Lili felt a little proud of herself, and as she moved the thingy around, she pushed some random buttons to hopefully find the GPS.

No, that was the cloaking device. No, that activated the windshield wipers…

"Hello, and welcome to the Psychonauts Global Positioning System. Guiding Psychonauts everywhere!" a chipper voice suddenly intoned. "Please state your destination."

"Uh," said Lili as the jet suddenly jerked downwards. "Whispering Rock."

"Your destination is Whispering Rock Psychic Summer Camp. Processing…please turn right."


	2. Crazy Crazy Lady

Here's the second chapter. By the way, I don't blame any of you if you're confused about the mechanics of a Psychonaut's jet. (Please review and so on.)

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**Membranous Insanity**

Lili jumped out of the jet and tried to figure out where exactly she landed. Well, at least she wasn't _completely_ off her target…and at least she only tore down _a few_ trees…and even though she didn't know how to put down the landing gears, the jet wasn't all _that_ damaged…

She was in the parking lot, ("I hope Oleander wasn't too fond of his car…") and conveniently enough, near a stump that led to the transit system under the camp. Lili jumped in and landed neatly in the cart upon which some feminine, computerized voice asked in an interestingly seductive manner, "Where would you like me to take you, Agent Cruller?"

"The sanctuary," Lili snapped. The cart didn't seem to realize that this young girl couldn't be Ford (because, for one thing, he's a man, not a girl) and so whirred along its merry way to Ford's sanctuary.

Ford raised an eyebrow when he saw Lili jump out of the stump and run over to him. "You're supposed to be at HQ."

"Well, yeah. Maybe. I guess. But that's not important right now!" Lili had found that the best way to get her father to forget about a certain detail was to shout, 'That's not important right now!' and so tended to say this a lot, even if it usually only worked on her dad. She was about to go on a long ramble containing a summary of events leading up to a question, but stopped herself when she realized something. "Wait, you _knew_ they were gonna leave me behind at HQ?"

Ford chuckled and tapped his head. "Part of my subconscious is still in Raz's head. I just peeked a little while you all were flying in that jet."

Lili found that now it would be quite uncomfortable talking to Raz, knowing that an old man could listen in. She tried to stop thinking about it so she could do the thing she came here for and so that Ford wouldn't read her thoughts about him being a pervert. "Okay, so anyways, you can still access the HQ's database, right?" The crazy old man nodded, and Lili felt elated. "Great! That means you can tell me where that lady's evil lair or whatever is!"

At this, Ford shuffled uneasily. "Weeeeelll…"

Her bubble of elation popped. "Oh great. What?"

"First of all, Sasha and Milla would kill me for sending you out there! Second, don't take this the wrong way, but you're not needed. Everybody who can take care of it is already there. If you needed to go and save them, I would know through Raz and trust me; they're not in trou…bl…e…"

Cruller suddenly had a strange, dazed look on his face as he stared at something Lili couldn't see. The old man snapped out of it quickly and bluntly said, "They're in trouble. Well, at least Raz is." Lili didn't know whether to celebrate this sudden shower of lucky coincidences or to start worrying about Raz. "He got knocked out," continued Ford as he shuffled over to a computer. "Might've been a trap. Not sure 'bout the others, but they were probably caught in the same one. I'll have to send you in." Something started printing out, and Ford ripped the paper off and handed it over to Lili. "If you see Sasha or Milla, tell them not to kill me for this."

Lili glanced down at the slip of paper that had the coordinates, then looked up at Ford again. "Hang on, can't you teleport me there? Sasha mentioned that you could earlier."

"Afraid that you'll crash that jet next time?" The girl scowled, and she wished that Ford would stop grinning. "Sorry, but I have no idea where exactly…eh… '42 W, 17 S' is, or what this lair looks like. If I tried to send you over, you might end up…in Germany or something, I dunno. Here's a radio for communicating with me." The radio was a dull green, though some of the paint was peeling off. It smelled weird and looked like it could explode.

"…I think it's safer if you do to me whatever it was you did to Raz," said Lili, trying to hold the radio by the antennae to avoid the sparks. Unsavory as the idea of an old man in her head was, she preferred that to having something explosive in her pocket.

"Hey, my mind's broken enough! I don't need to go around, breaking more pieces off and shoving it into every kid's brain!"

The resulting mental image was enough to convince Lili not to push the matter further. "Okay, I'll stick with the radio. I'll call you when I get there, I guess."

"You also might need this." Because Lili had been ready to leave, she was completely unprepared for the flying Psycho-portal aimed at her. She grabbed at it and fumbled with the tiny door until she got it in her pocket.

"Okay, thanks. I'm not sure if I'm ever gonna use it, but thanks anyways."

"Be careful. And only tell those guys I willingly gave you that paper if you have to. Like when they're torturing it out of you or something."

"Thanks…I guess." She waved back to Ford before jumping back into the stump.

Back in the parking lot, Lili was surprised to see a boy loitering around Milla's car. "Hey!" she barked, climbing out the stump. "Who're you?"

The boy stiffened up and guiltily turned around, but once he saw it was only a girl, he relaxed. He had a very long hat and blue skin and was dressed in Asian-like clothes. Lili vaguely wondered if it was made of silk. "Um," the boy mumbled sullenly, "I'm D'artagan."

That didn't sound like an Asian name at all. "…Dartigan…?"

The boy didn't seem all that angry. Maybe he was used to his name being mispronounced. "No, Daaart…taaaag…gaaaan. D'artagan."

Lili shook her head. "I'll just call you Dart. " He didn't seem to mind. "What are you doing here? Camp is over. Actually, I don't think I've ever seen you around here before…"

"Oh, well…uh…" Dart started to shiftily look away under Lili's suspicious glare. "…I was…hiding in the bathroom…"

"…From Bobby?"

"Yeah! That guy!"

"The whole time?"

"Um…yeeeah…" Knowing how implausible his story sounded now, Dart quickly changed the subject. "So, uh, you're going to Vera's place, right?"

Lili's eyes widened, but then she remembered that she was a psychic who lived with psychics and therefore shouldn't be so surprised. "Stop reading my mind."

"Then stop making your mind so invitingly readable," Dart retorted lazily. "Anyways, can I come with you?"

Judging from his behavior up to that point, Lili decided that Dart would give a vague answer to the question, 'Why?' And though Dart was slightly suspicious, she could use all the help she could get. Infiltrating a crazy villainess's lair is hard work, you know. "Fine. Get in the jet."

Dart quickly whipped his head around to the jet in amazement (consequentially almost hitting Lili with the end of his hat) and said, "You know how to fly _that_?" But Lili didn't answer and her invitingly readable mind said something along the lines of "Well…" in brainwaves. Dart suddenly grew nervous, but he followed Lili and they both levitated in. Instead of sitting in the back, Dart decided to follow Lili to the cockpit, which may have been the worst mistake he had ever made.

As Dart was wondering where all the gauges and levers and all the other stuff needed to steer a jet were, Lili put the keys in and closed her eyes to get ready to drive.

"Wait," said Dart, getting very nervous indeed. "Why are you closing your eyes?"

"'Cause I can only drive this thing with my mind, and I need to close my eyes to concentrate."

"You're gonna drive a _jet_ with your _eyes closed_?!"

"Zip it. And tell me if I'm gonna crash into anything." Lili thought she heard whimpering as the jet shakily took off.

The trip almost made Lili go mad. Listening to the cheerful voice of the jet's GPS was teeth-grinding enough, but together with Dart's loud screams whenever the jet started dropping (which was often), the whole affair was the please-shoot-me-I-long-for-the-sweet-embrace-of-death kind. A regular conversation on the jet was a morbidly joyful voice intoning, "Warning, Mount Rushmore straight ahead!" while a high-pitched scream right next to her ear warned her of the same thing.

When the jet finally landed roughly, Dart immediately tottered out, fell to the ground in a belly flop, and lay there, vowing never to under-appreciate the ground ever again.

Lili pointedly landed on Dart. "Get up, moron. It wasn't that bad."

"You flew too low! I could hear trees scraping the bottom! And you almost crashed into that building! And you broke President Roosevelt's nose!"

"Yeah, yeah. I'll call Ford now, and we'll go."

There was nothing indicating where the two children were. Not even a sign proudly declaring the country's name. Only a broken fence, an abandoned warehouse, and a dirty poster on the ground saying 'Viva la Revolution!' for some reason.

They easily jumped over the fence and approached the large, intimidating warehouse door. The rusty metal door wasn't locked, but it was extremely heavy and both of them had to tug the handle until it slid enough to let them slip in.

The inside was very dark. The light that came through the crack in the door only revealed a strip of the concrete floor before being overwhelmed by the complete darkness. There was also a horrible smell, which reminded Lili of when her fish died.

Lili couldn't even see a shadow. Was anything still in here? How would they find Vera's lair? Was it underground or something?

"…Maybe we can find a light switch," Dart said, finally breaking the silence. He was already moving along the wall with a hand out to keep him from bumping into anything. "You go to your right. I'll go this way."

Lili did so because it was a sensible thing to do, but neither of them went far when she heard a noise.

_Scrrrt scrrrt,_ went the noise.

Although she didn't want to sound scared, the girl squeaked, "What was that?"

"Maybe that's the sound of you kicking a rock," replied Dart somewhere in the darkness, though even he didn't sound convinced. The sound was more metallic.

_KlikliKLANG. _And then it was completely dark.

"…Aaand that's the sound of the door closing," said Dart, hoping his eyes would adjust quickly.

_Heh…hehehehe…_

"…Aaand that's the chilling maniacal laugh of someone about to kill us."

"Maybe she can't see us either…"

"_Intruders…I see you over there…you won't take mommy away from me…"_ The metallic scraping sped up its rhythm, and Dart quickly realized that whoever the owner of the voice was, she was dragging a metal thing and was now running over to where he was.

The blue-skinned boy ducked and tried rolling away, but it was hard when he had no idea where exactly his attacker was. He felt something swing above him as he ducked, but then rolled right into the attacker. They both fell and there was some struggling noises before Dart finally got up and ran away. "We have to make light!" He suddenly felt many degrees hotter. "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!"

"EEEYAAHAHAHAHAHA!" the mystery attacker screeched somewhere far off, and after that Dart heard what could only be Lili screaming. Shit! When had she stopped chasing him?! The boy charged over to where he thought he heard the scream and ran right into Lili's illuminated psychic fist.

"Oh sorry," Lili apologized as soon as she found out who she had punched. "I thought you were that crazy laughing woman…"

"Jus…just find something to light on fire…" Dart groaned and felt his nose. It was bleeding. He heard Lili run off somewhere just as the chilling cackle started up again. He rolled over to the side just as something came down on the end of his hat, tugging it off. Dart grabbed it and stuffed it back on his head before running off again.

"Try grabbing your thought bubble!" said Lili from who-knew-where, and Dart pulled a blue bubble from thin air, which managed to cast a paltry blue glow. It was helpful, as he could see that he was about to run into a wall and so turned quickly, but looking behind him to see the attacker almost made him trip. The blue glow created a "flashlight" effect on her face, and what he could see of it showed pure, homicidal insanity.

She also seemed to be smoking, which just made her creepier.

Dart suddenly rushed towards the woman and aimed a psi-punch at her chest, but the psychic energy popped when it hit her. It had pushed her to the ground, but was otherwise ineffective. While he was gaping in confusion, the lady got up again and hit him on the side of his head with her weapon.

It was definitely a metal pipe, thought Dart as he collapsed onto the ground. His thought bubble popped too, but he already knew that the woman was raising her pipe again for another blow. Too dazed to roll away this time, Dart shut his eyes and braced for the pain that would surely hit.

There was suddenly an orange-ish glow and a harsh howl, and a steaming pipe clattered besides Dart. When he opened his eyes again, Lili was running up to him, red-purple bubble in hand, and she quickly dragged him away from the cursing woman.

"Sorry," she said, breathing heavily. "I couldn't set her on fire for some reason, so I tried her pipe."

"My psi-punch didn't work on her…" Dart murmured, trying to ignore the fact that his head was bleeding. On a whim, he tried using clairvoyance on the lady, and only got a second's glimpse through her eyes before getting kicked out somehow. "I don't think psychic stuff works on her," he said, strangely calm.

"Oh, just great! We can't fight her and we can't open the door without her coming over to stop us!"

"You know, listening to you panic makes me happier for some reason…"

"Screw you. Just stay here. I just had an idea." Dart felt himself being dragged to a wall and watched as Lili ran back to the crazy lady. By now, the pipe had cooled down and the woman was rushing towards them again, her cackling as strong as ever. Lili pushed her back a little with psi-blasts that, though not very effective, apparently still stung a little, and once there was a comfortable distance between the two, the pig-tailed girl telekinetically grabbed the pipe so that the woman was now in the air. She shook her around until the woman lost her grip and then finally whacked her on the head with the pipe. The woman seemed to have been knocked out, but Lili hit her again to be sure. It may seem unbelievable that Lili would hit anybody on the head with a pipe, but she did. The crazy woman _was_ trying to kill her after all. (She also tried pretending that the woman was a stuffed animal, which helped a lot.)

The lights flickered back on, blinding the two for a few seconds. "Okay," said Lili, rubbing her eyes, "I think there's an –" Her sentence broke off into a loud shriek as she turned around to face Dart. It looked like she was pointing at him, but he saw what she was screaming at once he looked left.

In the corner, just a foot away from him, was a skeleton. There were wriggling maggots all over it, left with no more decaying flesh to eat. The skeleton had probably once been female, as it was wearing a very torn and dirty dress.

"…So that's where the smell came from."

"Stop being so calm! It's creeping me out! Just help me open the door. I think there's a first aid kit somewhere in the jet."

While Lili ran outside, Dart leaned against the now open door and held the side of his aching head. With nothing better to do, he surveyed the inside of the warehouse. It was completely bare. Concrete floor, concrete walls, concrete ceilings with some lamps. There were no telltale cracks of a secret entrance or anything, as far as he could tell.

Lili came running back inside with the kit. She tossed some bandages and some tissues to Dart. "Wipe your nose and try cleaning your head before bandaging it. I'm gonna check on that lady."

Dart cleaned off most of the blood. While wrapping his head, he said, "I don't see anything leading to a secret lair. There are no books to pull out, no panels to press on…"

"Oh great," Lili muttered, wrapping the crazy woman's burned hands. "We can't waste time looking around for a stupid switch…maybe this person knows."

Dart quickly glanced at the woman. Even unconscious, she had a crazed, murderous grin on her pale face, which only supported the boy's opinion that asking her anything would result in a knife to the face. "If you wake her up and try to ask her, I'm pretty sure she'd try to kill you again."

"I'm not stupid! I have a Psycho-portal. If you feel better, we'll have to go in her mind."

"Ah. Going into a murderous woman's mind makes me feel _much_ better."

"Okay then," and Lili threw the small door onto the woman's forehead, where it stuck like very adhesive tape. Without even bothering to check if Dart was following her or not, she sat down and flew through the small door at the same time.


	3. Mental Worlds are Confusing

Aaarrgh, this isn't very interesting at allll...it's so boooorrriiinng. Arrrrgh, I'm writhing in despaiiiirrr...I think I'll go cry in the corner while all you readers (or rather, 'reader') review this to tell me how horribly horrible it is.

I need a beta. But I'm afraid that they'll be so disgusted at what I write that they quit. Aaarrrrgh. I'm sorry. Go ahead and read. And for cripes sake, tell me how to make this damn thing better!

* * *

**How to Fix a Mind**

A mental world was supposed to be absolutely _saturated_ with some kind of symbolism. Lili couldn't draw any meaning out of _this_ one, though.

She had fallen right into a jungle. It had to be a jungle because of all the vines. Speaking of which, the vines kept trying to grab her like snakes would, and they were hard to dodge because they were _everywhere_. Equally as numerous were the carnivorous plants that wasted no time snapping at her, straining at their roots trying to get a bite out of her. Unfortunately, as much as she'd like to, burning them all would have been very dangerous to her.

"Geez, is this person afraid of plants or something?" She quickly fired a psi-blast at yet another snake-vine and jumped over a giant, snapping venus flytrap.

"Maybe all of this represents something else," said Dart, trailing closely behind. "For some reason, there're a lot of school buses going around here too." Lili immediately tried looking for one and saw one of the buses running over a tree ferociously. For some reason, it was painted camouflage.

"So she's afraid of plants _and_ schools _and_ joining the army?"

"I don't think you're very good at figuring out the meanings of things."

They gave the savage bus a wide berth, but unluckily for them, it was occupied with running things over. And apparently, things that were actually able to move were much more fun to run over. The bus reared up like a rowdy horse, its engine roaring, before it chased the two children.

They ran and ran and ran and ran, but the bus simply sped up with them. The vines and plants all hurriedly jumped out of the way, not wanting to be a victim of the homicidal vehicle. Looking back at it, Lili thought she saw an evil, triumphant smirk on the front bumper just before both of them tripped on a giant root and into a little circle of sand, which actually had a circle drawn around it.

They quickly jumped up again, now certain that the bus would be right behind them now, but the lack of engine noise and a dull, echoing tapping sound turned their attention behind them.

Around the little circle of sand, the air looked…substantial? Lili could see it swirling around lazily, kind of like glass. Through the air, she could see the savage bus angrily running itself into the air-wall again and again before it drove off.

"Well," said Dart, breathing heavily. "That was lucky." He relaxed and sat in the sand normally, only to find that a stick was being waved at his face. It looked thin, and the tip had sand stuck to it. To the 'attacker's' credit, it was a _sharp_ stick…

But the wielder was a scared little girl, younger than seven, and no matter the sharpness of the stick, she could be easily overpowered. "Who are you?" she quavered, but immediately continued, "You're not mommy! Go 'way! You're not s'posed to come in here!" The girl was definitely a much younger version of the woman whose mind they were in. The pale blonde hair was much neater and shorter, and her white skin and dress, cleaner. She seemed to be much less insane than her real-life counterpart, which was good too.

Lili came forward, trying to look nonthreatening, and said, "Look, um…your mom sent us…for…uh…" The only thing that the girl could think of at the top of her head was how she used to have a private tutor, since usually public schools didn't let her in. But now wasn't really the time to dwell on stupid, bigoted people. "…Tutoring."

This seemed to have been the wrong lie to say, as the girl's round eyes somehow widened even more. "Mommy would never do that! She said she'd be right back! I was s'posed to show her…she was s'posed to…" And then the girl plopped down into the sand and began to cry. Her loud, choking sobs shook her small frame.

Dammit, this was why Lili hated small children. So maybe she was technically a kid herself, but _she_ didn't start crying whenever things weren't going her way. "Argh, I can't handle little kids," she complained, and just let Dart, who was closer to the girl anyways, make an attempt to comfort her.

Being a boy, this was rather awkward for him too. "Um, it's okay," he said after shooting Lili a glare for dumping this responsibility on him. "Your mom _will_ come soon…" The blue-skinned boy made as if to pat the girl on the back, but she twisted away from him and waved the stick threateningly at him again.

"I'm not s'posed to let strangers touch me. That's bad. Then I get…get…kidnapped. Can't tell my name too. I'll get ate'n by a mean wolf." There was absolutely no sign of tears, leading Lili to believe that she had just been pretending before. Her opinion of the woman lowered again: she hated attention-seekers. "I bet you took mommy away! She hasn't come back for a long time! That means you're in..in…ca…hoots! Cahoots with the black thing!"

"Trust me, we're not in cahoots with anything."

"Nor do we associate, are in company with, have any relation to…" Lili droned, sounding rather bored now. Dart gave her another short glare (not that she really cared). "So anyways, what's this 'black thing'?" Whatever it was, it sounded just like the kind of mental thing they had to beat up.

"It came when mommy left..." The small girl let the arm holding the stick drop and stared off distantly at the sky, apparently forgetting that she was not 's'posed to give strangers…infor…information!'

"Mommy talks to people a lot and goes outside a lot now…I mean, before…so then she said I had to go on a school bus to a school instead, an' people there were mean an' scary an' noisy an' I came back here an' then she drove off, and then the black thing came. Mommy hasn't come back yet…it's been so long. And the black thing makes fun of me and tries to take away the only safe place…"

The girl suddenly focused on something behind Lili and Dart. Her sharp intake of breath already told them what it was she saw, but they turned around anyways.

The thing was certainly black, like a shadow. In fact, it was exactly that. The only things not black were the little dots of white for eyes and the big toothy mouth. It couldn't have been a grin; it was too neutral to be one. The figure didn't seem entirely there – parts of it wavered and faded before returning to shadow-black, but it must have been solid because the plants moved aside accordingly when it pushed through them.

Interestingly enough, it looked like a silhouette of the little girl.

All three of them stood frozen, the blonde girl out of fear, Lili and Dart out of confusion. The shadow came and started scuffing its foot on the border of the sand. As it did so, tendrils of vines started reaching in the gap of the line. The little girl pushed past the two psychics and started waving her stick at the shadow, shouting "Stop it! Stop it!" and then tried desperately to redraw the border. The vines curled around the stick, as if trying to stop her, but grew limp and disintegrated when the girl managed to redraw the line. The shadow watched this, possibly with amusement. It was impossible to tell with its unchanging face.

_Come on out, _it said, though its mouth did not move. It was a chilling voice, the kind that echoed and made you think you were imagining things. _Come out, Josie Barith. We are having a party. What are you frightened for? Come out, nothing will hurt you… _and here, the shadow giggled, making the hair rise on the back of Lili's neck.

"Stop it! Go away!" Josie flailed and waved the stick menacingly again, but this did nothing to drive away the shadow. It just kept giggling.

_Go ahead then, Josie…continue living in fear. Forever waiting for your mother – _At this point, both Lili and Dart shot at the shadow. The shadow drew back with an _Urk! _Slightly encouraged by this, Lili shouted, "Get it!" Josie made no move to move out of her secluded circle of sand as Dart and Lili suddenly jumped out at the creepy shadow. It realized it could be wounded by these beams and jumped into a jet black hole that suddenly opened up in the air. Without really thinking (except for 'The faster I take care of this damn thing, the faster I can stop worrying about stupid, camouflage buses'), Lili jumped after it. Dart hesitated, but hurriedly followed when he saw the hole quickly shrinking. The end of his hat got stuck, but he pulled it through with a little tugging.

Luckily, the place they jumped into did not have crazy buses or living plants. But it was friggin' dark. And there indeed was a party.

The music was a loud, generic throb that the people jumped in tempo with. The kind of music you didn't even have to listen to. The people themselves were more interesting, mostly because Lili could only see white outlines of them. The people were so dark that they would have been invisible if it hadn't been for their outlines. Not unlike those iPod commercials, actually. Unseen feet kept treading on her toes, making Lili kick back, but the crowd was one of those stubborn ones that kept on jumping and dancing and pushing no matter what you did. Too bad she landed right in the middle of it.

"Hey! Dart! Are you there?!" But the sheer noise completely drowned out her voice. The shadow crowd pushed and shoved her until she was right at the edge with hardly any room between the black wall and a person she couldn't see. Dammit, this was so annoying. Lili forced her arms out from between herself and the jumping person in front of her, and as she lay them on the wall, she felt a light switch. At least, she thought it was a light switch. It definitely felt like one.

Flick. The room turned white. The music stopped. The jumping black people were suddenly white cardboard cutouts. Apparently, there had been a disco ball, but it had been too dark for Lili to see it. It probably had been spinning when the room was black, but now, it looked sad and dull. The only sound was " – LIIIIiiiiiiii…oh, the music stopped."

There was some scuffling, and a few grunts, and then a yell as Dart fell over and sent a row of cardboard people to the floor, like dominoes. Lili pushed aside some more blank cutouts (making a few more chains fall) and laughed at the sight of the boy sprawled over slightly bent cutouts.

"That's not funny," he complained, trying to push himself up. "I got pushed all the way to the speakers! Do you know how loud that was?" And then another cardboard man fell on him, making Lili laugh even harder. "…Okay, _that_ was funny. But seriously, shouldn't we be doing something else right now?"

"Yeah, yeah." Lili stifled her snickering as she pulled Dart up on his feet and together, they kicked down cardboard people and wandered around the room. Just like the dark room, there were no visible walls, so they often ran right into one. After Dart rubbed his forehead for the sixth time, he sighed. "No door…"

"Okay then, maybe we can punch our way out."

"I really doubt that," Dart replied, tapping the wall with a knuckle. It made a sound like glass.

"Never know until you try, right?" And Lili started pounding against the wall with her psychic, dark-purple-ish fist. After hitting it ten times in quick succession, the girl backed off. "Okay, I tried."

"Do you think that's actual glass?"

Lili frowned at this sudden question. "No, since we're in a crazy woman's head."

"That's not what I meant. I mean, do you think it'll behave like real glass?"

"No, because I just punched it ten times and it didn't even crack."

"You are really frustrating."

"Thank you."

"I was just thinking that when you heat glass up, it cracks. Or melts or something."

"So you want to try to pyrokinesis the hell out of it?" Lili looked thoughtful for a bit. "Can you even start fire on a wall?"

"Ah, I knew it wasn't that good of an idea…you can't really start a fire on a wall you can't even see…" The blue-skinned boy started rubbing the top of his stocking cap, as if trying to massage his brain into thinking of a better idea.

"No, actually, we don't have to set the _wall_ on fire…" said Lili as she slowly glanced over at all the fallen cardboard people.

* * *

"You know, it's actually kind of disturbing making a bonfire out of stuff that used to be people. At least, I think they were people," said Dart offhandedly as he tossed a cardboard man into the roaring fire.

"I don't feel sorry for them at all. They were annoying." Lili fanned the flames higher with another cardboard person before throwing that one in as well.

"I didn't say I felt sorry for them, just that it may seem kind of disturbing."

"Eh, I've seen worse. Now quiet, I think I hear cracking…" And then, quite suddenly, the room exploded harmlessly and fell to the ground.

It was quite surprising to look at the floor and see the sky.

Lili stopped panicking as she tried reasoning through this. It wasn't just the sky she was apparently 'standing' on; she could see upside-down trees and bushes too. One of the savage buses rolled right under her feet, also upside-down. Considering that they had just followed what seemed to be a shadow into a dark hole and were then dumped into a ridiculously dark room, they must have jumped into one of those video-game-like 'shadow worlds.' So they weren't walking on the sky, they were walking on the other side of the ground.

"Ugh…this suddenly reminds me of your flying skills…" Dart moaned before immediately being punched by Lili.

"I think I know where that shadow is. Which way is that circle of sand?" Neither of them remembered, but thinking that they would find it eventually, they started towards a random direction.

And lo and behold, they saw an upside-down Josie, worryingly drawing the circle around the sand again and again. Right above her (or below, however you want to think about it), like a mirror image, was a mound of black sand with the shadow standing on top. It stared at the psychics with the small circles of lights it used for eyes.

…_Why are you here?_

"Well, if you really want to know, we're here to kill you so that lady will hopefully stop being homicidal so we can ask her how to get into some other crazy lady's evil lair. Now shut up so we can kick your ass."

The shadow looked down, and though its expression never changed, it seemed sad. _Ah. So I must fight you…are you sure?_

Lili blinked. "Huh?"

_You don't have to fight me. Can't you just turn around and leave? This is not your business. I only want her to follow me out of that place. I only want her to stop foolishly staying inside in fear, waiting for someone who won't come back. _

"…So she would get run over by a bus…?"

_And, _continued the shadow, ignoring Dart's comment, _Can you fight a fleeing opponent? _The shadow suddenly jumped off the small mound of black sand and sped quickly away from the two, trailing inky black footsteps.

"Wha…! Hey!" The two tried chasing after the dark figure, but she had a good head start and was extremely fast. Though the two could easily see her against the white background, it wasn't like they could shoot at her. The shadow would dodge easily and continue running.

"…As…fleeting as…a shadow," Dart managed to gasp out after it felt like they were running for hours.

"…Don't make…stupid jokes…at a time like this…" Lili panted back. She was too tired to punch the dork this time. They both finally collapsed on the ground, lungs and muscles burning.

"…Dammit, we're gonna lose her…"

"That's what she's trying to do…She's hoping we'll give up and leave; see, look. She stopped to see whether we'll go away." Dart pointed to the black figure a long way off, almost at the horizon. Lili cursed under what little breath she had and stared at the little black footprints that taunted her so, laughed at how slow she was, how she would never catch up. The pig-tailed girl was sure that each individual toe print was snickering at her.

Why were there two pairs of footprints?

A few minutes of noggin-using later, Lili stood up, glared at the tensing shadow in the distance, and fired at it. It shot off out of sight.

Before Dart could start asking her incredulous questions, Lili hissed at him, "Invisibility. Now. And turn around." And Dart was left seemingly alone. Sure he would get punched again if he stayed visible, saying 'Huh? What?', the stocking-cap boy followed suit.

They didn't have to stare at the other horizon for very long. The shadow soon appeared, looking over its shoulder once in a while, but slowing down. Though Dart couldn't see what Lili was doing, he crept towards the shadow himself. She was probably doing the same thing anyways.

As soon as the shadow exhaled a relieved sigh, (could shadows do that?) the two psychics suddenly revealed themselves and each of them grabbed an arm. "Hah!" Lili shouted triumphantly, as the shadow started desperately struggling against them, but it was no use. It stared at the ground. _I didn't want to hurt you, but I won't hold it back anymore…_

"Okay, _now_ what are you talking about?" Lili sighed, but didn't loosen her grip.

_All this light shows what Josie sees us shadows as…_ As it spoke, it grew. Its arms became as thick as tree trunks, and Dart and Lili had to let go and back away. _…And she sees me as…_ They could see two extra arms rip out of its sides and the dull teeth suddenly turning sharp. It dropped down to an animal-like crouch, and its new claws seemed to crack the mirror-like floor. As very sharp-looking antennae sprouted from the shadow's now very large head, it whispered, _…a monster…_

Black seeped from its feet and hands and covered the ground quickly.

"We should run," said Dart rather meekly, and they did.

The shadow, as it was monstrously huge now, was very slow, but that didn't matter. Its long reach let it easily lumber in pace with the small psychics. Even when Lili and Dart found the time to jump onto their thought bubbles and continue to run like hell, the shadow would sometimes smash the ground hard, making them suddenly uncontrollably airborne and slowing them down.

_**COME ON! STOP RUNNING! **_ it roared gleefully, like an entirely different being. _**WHAT DO YOU THINK WILL HURT YOU? ME? **_It gave a course, throaty laugh and made a swipe at the two, which just barely missed.

Dart tried retorting with a well-aimed psi-blast that hit the giant monster between the eyes, but it shook it off quickly and didn't seem to do any damage at all. "Well, I'm all out of ideas…how 'bout you?"

Lili glanced up at the very sharp teeth hovering behind them. "Do you think there'll be a light switch somewhere? Just wondering, since if we can turn this place all black again, maybe that shadow thing'll turn small again."

Dart casually replied, "There's probably one still among the shards of that room we kinda blew up, but I doubt it'll work."

"Hey, we're in a mind, helping an inner child and being chased by a drooling shadow creature! I'm sure _anything's_ possible."

"…True…so what, now we're supposed to find the remains of a room in this endless, white space and pick up a small light switch while running?"

"I did say, 'anything's possible,' didn't I? Besides, the floor's black now. I'm sure it'll be hard to miss white shards on a black floor." Dart sighed, but helped Lili look around as they ran, dodging the occasional swipe. It took longer than Lili thought, but they finally came back to the mound of black sand.

"Okay, so it's around here somewhere," said Lili, throwing back a confusion grenade to try to give them more time to find the shards. "…And there they are!" Dart threw grenade after grenade, and while the shadow monster was dazed and wobbly, Lili knelt among the broken room and grabbed the light switch just as Dart ran out of grenades and the monster shook off the haze of confusion.

Running like hell again, Lili flicked the switch.

Nothing.

"Dammit!" the girl screamed.

"Told you," Dart quipped, then blinked. "Oh shit."

"Why! Won't! It! Make! This! Place! Black!" Each scream was punctuated by (besides exclamation points,) the click of the switch, which continued to do nothing.

"Maybe it has to be attached to the wall," suggested Dart.

"But there's no wall anymore! That's in a million pieces now!"

"Then maybe we're screwed."

"I hate it when you're so calm," growled Lili as she still hopefully flicked the switch up and down.

_**I'LL BE CATCHING UP TO YOU SOON, LITTLE ONES!**_

"ARGH, JUST SHUT UP!" In frustration, Lili chucked the light switch at the monster, and it landed on the lower arm and stuck there. The pig-tailed girl started grumbling about stupid insanity and stupid women and stupid shadows.

Dart continued to watch the light switch as his partner cursed and sweared beside him. As if testing out an idea, (actually, that's exactly what he was doing) the blue-skinned boy reached out telekinetically and flicked the switch again.

This time, something happened. More specifically, the shadow monster disappeared.

Before Lili could ask, "How does that work?" the floor beneath them fell away and they fell towards the real sky and landed on normal sand, at the feet of young Josie.

Josie didn't wave a stick threateningly at them this time. She was too busy staring happily at her mental world, which was now devoid of all plant life. Everything had been replaced with sand. Suddenly, Lili got the feeling that they had done something horribly wrong.

"It's so wonderful," breathed Josie. "Everybody left me alone. They're gone. They won't bother me when mommy comes home…" And suddenly, the girl jumped excitedly and pointed at a woman who seemed to have just appeared spontaneously. The woman looked a lot like her daughter, (or rather, vice-versa; the mother did come first, after all) but more business-like. The light-blonde hair was neatly tied into a bun, and she wore a grey suit. But there was something odd. The woman's face was shadowed, and her eyes couldn't be seen. Though she smiled as if happy to see her daughter again, she stumbled as if in pain, or mortally wounded. And the closer she got, the more she looked like she was wasting away.

Josie ran up to her mother, arms outstretched, ready for a heartwarming embrace (like the usual reunions movies tend to have), and her mother responded by leaning down to accept her child. That's when Lili saw a glint of metal near the mother's back.

There was a kitchen knife in her back.

"Uh, Josie…I don't think…" Lili started, but was shocked into silence as the two embraced and, quite suddenly, Josie's mother turned into a skeleton.

Josie didn't seem to notice anything, and though the skeleton grew limp and started to simply hang on her small shoulder, she just hugged it tightly. "Don't leave again, mommy…I'll cook for you here…It'll just be us…I can show you how well I've done on that test…Just sit here while I make sure…that we're alone…"

Warning alarms went off in Lili's head as she watched Josie roughly pull out the kitchen knife caked with old blood out of the skeleton's back and slowly turned towards the two psychics. Her expression was one of dazed insanity. When she laughed, Lili cringed at how similar was to the older counterpart.

They hadn't changed anything at all.


End file.
